So my trusty 12 year old washer has developed an issue with the spin cycle. Yesterday, after spinning most of the water out of two prior loads, the final load resulted in clothes that were still wet and needed to be wrung out. Clearly the spin cycle didn’t work. The load was rather small so it wasn’t overloaded. Trying the spin cycle again didn’t seem to remove any more water after several more minutes.
I removed the front panel and raised the top to view operation. The wash/agitation cycle seems to work fine - agitation is normal with good suds and splash. When it comes time to spin, the motor reverses direction and the inner basket and transmission begin to spin clockwise (from above) as one, the agitator starts to spin along too, and the drain pump is engaged. As the spinning increases in speed, the water drains out just fine - mini level takes about 20 seconds to fully drain. The speed gets fast enough that the holes in the inner basket and the splines on the agitator assembly start to blur as they spin. However, after about a minute in spin mode both the inner tub and transmission housing slow down and stop. The agitator assembly slows too and then begins to agitate back and forth like during the wash cycle (note there is no change in direction of the motor). The motor and drain pump continue to run as they normally would in the clockwise direction. There is no audible change in sound when the tub starts to slow and stop.
Looking under the unit during the spin cycle (when basket is spinning and after it slows and stops), the belt and transmission pulley continue to turn without any signs of belt slippage or change in speed. But the transmission pulley is no longer spinning the transmission housing above it. It is almost like they’ve become disconnected somehow after a minute and the tranny starts to run in the other direction like during a wash cycle. If I raise the lid to stop the motor and then lower it to restart, the basket doesn’t move and the agitator shifts back and forth again. The only way to get the basket and transmission to start spinning again is to first go run the wash/rinse cycle again where the motor is running in the other direction. Then when the spin cycle begins, the motor reverses direction, the basket/tranny.agitator will spin, the water will drain, and after about a minute the basket/tranny stops again and the agitator assembly agitates. For some reason the spinning gives up after a minute.
I have read the advice for washers that don’t spin and the thrust bearing kit is suggested. However, in those cases it wasn’t clear to me that their washers would begin to spin and then stop. So I am sharing that detail in case it matters.
With the washer off, I inspected the tranny pulley. No matter which direction I turn the pulley by hand, the inner basket does not turn. I removed the dust cap and inspected the reference cam arrow. When I rotate the pulley CCW (as viewed from below) the arrow does move and stops about a quarter inch inside the min hub reference. So it is between the min and max.
I can attach photos and video it that helps. At first I hoped it was just the thrust bearing but am worried it might be the transmission.
Thanks in advance for the advice.